montréal Infrastructures municipales - Discussion générale

[Weka 29]

Le 2022-11-02 à 12:32, Rocco a dit :

L'insalubrité vient aussi des ramasseux de poubelles, oui les éboueurs qui "pitchent" littéralement contre le camion les containers d'où se déversent des dizaines de rebus sur le trottoir et ils n'en ont que faire puisqu'ils doivent toujours faire plus vite. Bref après une collecte, il n'est pas rare de voir des papiers et des déchets partout dans la rue et au sol car ça été ramassé tout croche. Et ça recommence la semaine suivante. On leur demande pas d'être consciencieux car le travail est chiant, mais ils pourraient certainement être moins "cowboys". 

Je le constate presque systématiquement à chaque semaine dans mon quartier.

[Spiter_01]

Tout ce que ça prend c'est de l'éducation, la situation serais bien meilleurs si les gens avaient assez d'intelligence pour comprendre c'est le VOLUME de leur déchet qui fait déborder les poubelles.

La prochaine fois que vous croisez une poubelle qui déborde prenez en note la quantité de tasse à café en carton. Beau contenant volumétrique qui (idéalement) ne contient rien à l'intérieur, on remplie les poubelles d'air. Les montréalais on la terrible habitude de prendre leur café pour emporter dans une tasse en cartons pour une petite marche. Dans les endroits les plus populaires c'est probablement 30-50% du volume d'une poubelle. C'est pas difficile d'écraser une tasse ou une boite avant de la jeter/recycler. 

 

[TurboLed]

Le 2022-11-05 à 10:31, Spiter_01 a dit :

Tout ce que ça prend c'est de l'éducation, la situation serais bien meilleurs si les gens avaient assez d'intelligence pour comprendre c'est le VOLUME de leur déchet qui fait déborder les poubelles.

Je ne suis pas d'accord. C'est une réponse de politicien, responsabiliser le citoyen plutôt que d'apporter des correctifs à la manière d'effectuer la collecte.

Même si on réduit le volume de déchets, il y a quand même des poubelles qui vont trainer dans des sacs en bord de rue toute la nuit à cause des horaires ridicules, des animaux qui ouvrent les sacs car les bacs ne sont pas obligatoires partout, des ordures qui sortent du camion en mouvement pendant la collecte, des centres de tri de recyclage à ciel ouvert qui débordent, etc.

 

[mtlurb]

« Responsabiliser » c’est une autre façon de dire transférer la responsabilité au citoyen. 
 

News flash: le citoyen est 100% responsable de ses actes et ce pour toujours. 
 

Maintenant qu’on sait ça, qu’est ce que les politiciens peuvent faire pour améliorer la situation en sachant que le citoyen est déjà 100% responsable et mettre leur culottes de décideurs. 

[Spiter_01]

5 hours ago, TurboLed said:

Je ne suis pas d'accord. C'est une réponse de politicien, responsabiliser le citoyen plutôt que d'apporter des correctifs à la manière d'effectuer la collecte.

Même si on réduit le volume de déchets, il y a quand même des poubelles qui vont trainer dans des sacs en bord de rue toute la nuit à cause des horaires ridicules, des animaux qui ouvrent les sacs car les bacs ne sont pas obligatoires partout, des ordures qui sortent du camion en mouvement pendant la collecte, des centres de tri de recyclage à ciel ouvert qui débordent, etc.

 

Nuance, je n'ai pas dis que la municipalité n'as pas sa part de responsabilité, mais qu'il est possible pour le citoyens d'améliorer la situation avec ses propres gestes. Condamner l'inaction ou l'inefficacité de la ville sans aussi analyser le comportement des générateurs de déchet c'est un peu hypocrite. 

[Spiter_01]

5 hours ago, mtlurb said:

« Responsabiliser » c’est une autre façon de dire transférer la responsabilité au citoyen. 
 

News flash: le citoyen est 100% responsable de ses actes et ce pour toujours. 
 

Maintenant qu’on sait ça, qu’est ce que les politiciens peuvent faire pour améliorer la situation en sachant que le citoyen est déjà 100% responsable et mettre leur culottes de décideurs. 

Être 100% responsable de ses actes généralement ca implique aussi subir les conséquences de ses actions. Est-ce que un enfant est 100% responsable de ses actes quand il  a un parent derrière lui pour ramasser les dégâts? Donc dans notre examples, ça serais qu'un bougon qui dompe ses vidanges n'importe quel jours de la semaines et n'importe ou en ville devrais être obliger de les voire et vivre avec la laideur qu'il/elle créer. Que les fumeurs qui jettent leur mégot de cigarette sur le trottoirs marche dans les cendres de ces derniers à chaque jour. 

 

 

[mtlurb]

il y a 5 minutes, Spiter_01 a dit :

Être 100% responsable de ses actes généralement ca implique aussi subir les conséquences de ses actions. Est-ce que un enfant est 100% responsable de ses actes quand il  a un parent derrière lui pour ramasser les dégâts? Donc dans notre examples, ça serais qu'un bougon qui dompe ses vidanges n'importe quel jours de la semaines et n'importe ou en ville devrais être obliger de les voire et vivre avec la laideur qu'il/elle créer. Que les fumeurs qui jettent leur mégot de cigarette sur le trottoirs marche dans les cendres de ces derniers à chaque jour. 

 

 

Je ne condamne pas les gestes de personne. Par contre faut pas être naif et croire qu'il va jamais y avoir de bougons, de personnes en situation d'iténérance qui peuvent jeter de quoi, des gens avec des problèmes sociaux ou psychologique... la liste est tellement longue, qu'il faut absolument se détacher de la mentalité qu'il faut responsabiliser le citoyen. Il y en a qui ne sont juste pas aptes, et c'est là que la ville doit entrer dans l'équation.

[Spiter_01]

3 minutes ago, mtlurb said:

Je ne condamne pas les gestes de personne. Par contre faut pas être naif et croire qu'il va jamais y avoir de bougons, de personnes en situation d'iténérance qui peuvent jeter de quoi, des gens avec des problèmes sociaux ou psychologique... la liste est tellement longue, qu'il faut absolument se détacher de la mentalité qu'il faut responsabiliser le citoyen. Il y en a qui ne sont juste pas aptes, et c'est là que la ville doit entrer dans l'équation.

Je suis d'accord, la responsabilisation du citoyens n'est pas la solution pour atteindre une situation acceptable, mais le problème/comportement fautif est loin d'être exclusif à un groupe marginaliser. Autant qu'il y a des situations ou il n'y as pas une quantité de poubelle adéquate il y a des situations ou une personne vas continuer à empiler sur une poubelle débordante quand la prochaine qui est vide est facilement à distance de vue. 

[mtlurb]

Montreal's cash conundrum: Dreaming up new fees, but who pays?

The answer to “why” is simple enough: Montreal is desperate for more money.

It’s the “how” that’s vexing. How will the city get it?

Many Montrealers are already bracing for steep tax increases in the 2023 municipal budget that Mayor Valérie Plante plans to unveil on Nov. 29. That’s in part because property assessments, particularly on the residential side, soared in the latest three-year valuation roll that was tabled in September. But the administration has also hinted at tax increases of as much as six or eight per cent in recent weeks.

And so on Monday, as if presaging the troubling financial news to come, the Plante administration hosted a forum on the state of municipal finances where top city officials floated possible answers to the billion-dollar “how” question.

“We can’t continue like this,” city executive committee chairperson Dominique Ollivier said in her opening remarks to 100 guests who had been invited by the administration to participate in the forum.

“It’s time we ask ourselves the question together: where are we going? What is acceptable? How can we find new sources of revenue or new ways of financing our ambitions?”

The city didn’t identify the guests, but said they came from the areas of economics, transportation, culture, politics, academia, the environment and housing. The event was closed to the public and journalists, apart from the introductory speeches.

The administration describes the forum, and a summit on municipal taxation planned for the spring, as an attempt to build a consensus around appropriate new sources of  revenue for Montreal ahead of negotiations for a new fiscal pact with the Quebec government. The current financing deal between Quebec municipalities and the province expires at the end of 2024.

Since the 1990s, every one of Plante’s predecessors has pondered the same questions. Every Montreal mayor has engaged in public handwringing about the constraints on Montreal’s budget — which today tops $6 billion — and about the city’s capacity to deliver services if it has to continue relying on property tax revenue as its main source of income. And every mayor has asked the higher levels of government for new sources of revenue, be it a share of sales tax or gas tax, or some new taxation powers.

The keyword was and remains “diversification” — as in, finding new sources of revenue for the metropolis of two million residents so that it can become less dependent on property taxes.

“We’ll look at new ways to diversify sources of revenue because … Montreal finds itself in a context of fragile budgetary balance,” Ollivier said at Monday’s forum. As Quebec’s only metropolis, Montreal shoulders greater responsibilities than other municipalities that go beyond merely providing services to its own residents, she said. Seventy per cent of immigrants who come to the province settle in Montreal. The city is also the gateway for tourists who visit Quebec. The city is a major centre for employment and international trade. It’s also home to an airport and a port. And Montreal has a greater concentration of poverty than other municipalities. Yet nearly two-thirds of the city’s revenue comes from property tax, a revenue that has no connection to the economic growth that the city generates for the benefit of the entire province, Ollivier said.

Under provincial law, municipalities must pass a balanced budget. As a result, the process of reconciling spending and revenue in each new budget requires making difficult choices about what services and infrastructure to finance, Ollivier said.

It’s not that property tax is all bad, Peggy Bachman, a deputy city manager at the city of Montreal, said during the introductions to Monday’s forum. Property tax has the advantage of being stable. However, it has encouraged urban sprawl in the last 40 years, Bachman said, because cities have had to incite greater development to gain more revenue. Another defect of property tax is its disconnect from a person’s means to pay, she said. Property values have increased rapidly in recent years, particularly in Montreal, but personal incomes haven’t kept pace with those increases. The city says 45 per cent of Montrealers earn less than $25,000 a year.

So what is different now about the latest mayoral call for a financial reckoning? A 37-page document that the city prepared for the forum offers a peek into what the Plante administration has percolating.

The document adds a second objective to diversification of revenue. It argues the merits of taxes and tariffs that induce “behaviour changes” among members of society.

“Behaviour change allows a reduction in management costs for the community,” the document says. As an example, it describes taxing impermeable surfaces such as parking lots, where rain run-off ends up in the sewer system and has to be treated at the island’s waste-water treatment facility. By taxing run-off, the city can encourage owners to green paved areas on their properties, the document says.

“Property tax that only affects real estate owners in the metropolis seems illogical and inefficient,” the document says. “It’s essential to use a variety of measures, including eco-fiscal measures also aimed at changing behaviour.”

Some of the “eco-fiscal” measures being mulled include:

Taxing drinking water, waste water and rainwater run-off: The document says Montreal plans to start charging for drinking water in all non-residential buildings in the next few years. Water meters are costly to install, especially in homes, it says. And residential water pricing hits low-revenue households hard, it notes. Some cities offer tiered pricing in the residential sector, so payment only kicks in above a certain volume, or lower volumes start at lower rates. Some cities provide discounts to low-income households. Other pricing options: charging industrial and other non-residential buildings for large volumes of waste water and charging property owners for rainwater run-off since it ends up in the sewer system and at a waste water treatment plant. The latter works by levying a fee based on the surface area of a property’s impermeable pavement. Victoria and Halifax levy a tax on impermeable pavement to finance their water networks.

Taxing waste: Ontario charges every household for its quantity of waste. The pay-as-you-go rate can be based on volume (size of the bin or number of bags), on weight or a combination of the two. The document says a pay-as-you-go system might reduce waste by 10 to 50 per cent. Toronto and Calgary set prices based on size of the trash can plus $5.79 per additional garbage bag. However, the number of rentals and multi-unit buildings in Montreal would make it complicated to implement here, the document says. Montreal is also exploring regulations and fees for single-use items, the document says. It also describes “extended producer responsibility,” which makes producers fully or partially responsible for waste management costs for their products. On the non-residential side, industries, businesses and institutions already pay for the collection, transport and treatment of their waste. However, the tipping fee they pay at the landfill, which is set by the Quebec environment department and a portion of which goes to the municipality, is not high enough, the document says. In 2022, the tipping fee is $24.32 per metric tonne. The Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) evaluated the cost of disposing waste at $163 a tonne in 2018. So municipalities foot the difference between the tipping fee and the actual cost. Tipping fees are $163 per metric tonne in Newfoundland and over $100 in most European countries, the document says.

Gasoline tax: In OECD countries, the gasoline tax is on average higher than in Montreal, the document says. A higher gas tax, it says, would respond to the inevitable decline in revenues due to the growing electrification of vehicles. It would also set the table for the introduction of a mileage tax, the document says, and discourage solo use of cars.

Kilometre tax or mileage tax: The kilometre tax charges motorists for distance travelled. The tax can also vary according to the weight of the vehicle, the type of vehicle, the time of day, the amount of congestion and the area of the city. However, the implementation of such a tax is complicated by the issue of privacy protection and because Montreal doesn’t currently have the power to implement it, the document says. It says the MMC will carry out a feasibility study in the coming months to see if a kilometre pricing system can be implemented to finance public transit in the metropolitan area.

Tolls and zero emission zones: A toll can be set according to the day, the hour, the type of vehicle and the amount of congestion, the document says. In Montreal, there would be greater interest for a toll downtown to reduce congestion, it says. Examples where it has been implemented: London, Stockholm, Oslo and Milan. However, implementing a toll risks shifting congestion to another bridge or area, or affecting Montreal’s competitiveness compared to employment centres on the outskirts, the document says. As well, the cost of managing road pricing can be high, sometimes between 10 and 50 per cent of gross revenue. Parking fees can have a similar or even greater effect than the toll and be less costly to implement, it says.

Employers pay to reduce commuting: In France, a mobility payment to help fund public transit is payable by all employers who hire more than 10 employees. The adoption of the Commute Trip Reduction Law, in 1991, by the state of Washington induced cities and counties across the state to roll out programs to reduce commuting. For example, Seattle has a program for employers who have more than 100 employees in a single place, at least 2 days a week for more than one year. Employers have to identify solo auto reduction targets and report their progress every two years. They also have to provide staff with information about public transit and car-sharing options. Seattle also has a program that allows employers to offer their staff public transit network passes at a reduced price. The document says the two programs helped reduce the share of solo car use from 34.5 per cent in 2010 to 26.4 per cent in 2019, while providing income to public transit bodies.
 

However, there’s no mention in the document of levying a foreign buyers’ tax on real estate sales, which exists in cities like Vancouver and Toronto, even though Plante campaigned on it in 2017 and 2021.

Meanwhile, the document proposes other fiscal measures that could apply to land use:

Tax parking lots: Montreal has already announced its intention to expand the territory of application of its parking lot tax in 2023. Currently, Montreal levies a property tax on non-residential parking in the downtown area. All non-residential buildings that have indoor or outdoor parking are covered. Because of the higher rates on outdoor parking lots, the tax may have an incentive effect for owners to optimize spaces and convert them for real estate development or other uses.

Development royalties: In 2016, the Quebec government granted municipalities the power to charge royalties to developers to pay for new or expanded equipment, services and infrastructure that are required for development projects, such as the expansion of a water filtration plant or the construction of a new road or a new library. Montreal hasn’t yet made use of it. Montreal has long negotiated and signed individual development agreements with each developer. However, the financial contributions paid under these agreements don’t amount to a stable source of income or link the contribution to new municipal infrastructure or equipment. Development royalties could make it possible to set up a fund reserved for construction of infrastructure and municipal equipment required by new development. Ontario has long charged developers a royalty to finance the cost of expanded services to new households. In 2022, the government of Ontario allowed municipalities in the province to expand the services that can be financed via development royalties to include the police, fire, public transit, culture, recreation and parks. According to Toronto’s 2022 budget, development royalties will reach $588 million, representing 9.6 per cent of the city’s $6.1 billion capital expenditure  program.

 

The opposition at city hall says it’s ironic the Projet Montréal administration wants new sources of revenue for the city. Five Montreal boroughs that are led by opposition Ensemble Montréal recently passed resolutions demanding the city increase transfer payments to the 19 boroughs, which deliver frontline services to citizens. Montreal North, Outremont, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, St-Laurent and St-Léonard say their allocations were indexed by just one per cent in 2022 and are to be indexed by two per cent in 2023, leaving them with shortfalls that affect services. In fact, the document reveals that only 15 per cent of Montreal’s budget goes to the 19 boroughs.

St-Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa attended Monday’s forum. The document, he noted, dedicates a page to the principle of “subsidiarity,” which holds that decisions are best made by the order of government that is closest to the people they affect. Revenue should be redistributed accordingly, its proponents say. The administration wants the principle to apply to the city but isn’t willing to apply it to the boroughs, he said.

“It almost seemed like Groundhog Day,” DeSousa said of the forum, adding that it offered “no magic wand.”

Forum participants seemed to agree that eco-fiscal measures might be worthwhile to change people’s behaviour, DeSousa said. However, they won’t fill the city’s coffers in any significant way, he said. Participants also seemed concerned that eco-fiscal measures should not increase Montrealers’ tax burden, he said. So implementing a user fee on water or waste, for example, should bring a corresponding decrease in property tax.

“Otherwise, you’re just adding on more to the individual’s financial burden, and that’s a tax grab,” DeSousa said.

And even if Montreal achieves broad support for its proposals, it still has to convince the province. However, Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government has already rejected “eco-fiscal” measures in the short term. Last month, Environment Minister Benoit Charette said a kilometre tax would be for “after 2035,” when the ban on sales of new gasoline cars kicks in and gas tax revenue evaporates. And during the provincial election campaign, Legault called Québec solidaire’s proposal to tax polluting vehicles the stuff of “wonderland.”

One thing that Montreal’s document doesn’t propose is constitutional reform to recognize municipalities as a level of government. Until then, cities remain the creatures of the province.

How did Montreal get to this financial breaking point?

Historically, Quebec hasn’t made it easy for Montreal to balance its budget.

In 1980, the Quebec government transferred almost the entire field of property tax to municipalities, including school tax. It was in exchange for abolishing nearly all provincial transfers to municipalities, including a share of sales tax and a share of a tax on meals and the hotel industry. Montreal had to make up for the lost revenue — about one-fifth of its total revenue — with property tax.

In the 1990s, the province downloaded responsibilities on municipalities to redress its own finances. Under the 1992 Ryan reform, for example, the province abolished all operating subsidies to public transit bodies. It resulted in a shortfall of $281 million for Quebec municipalities.

Since then, successive Montreal mayors have complained of a “structural deficit,” a built-in shortfall in the city’s operating budget. Former mayor Gérald Tremblay has pegged Montreal’s annual structural deficit at $300 million to $400 million. So when the city sits down each year to prepare the next year’s budget, it begins with an imbalance between anticipated revenues and expenditures. The hole is typically filled by stop-gap aid from the province.

At the same time, the city is grappling with staggering infrastructure bills.

Chantal Morissette, the director of Montreal’s water department, told a forum on municipal financing on Monday that the city would need to invest $1 billion a year on upgrades and repairs to underground water infrastructure. That’s $600 million more than it currently spends — and yet the Plante administration has already quadrupled investment from what it was 15 years ago.

The recent investments have allowed the city to catch up somewhat on the so-called “infrastructure deficit” — the amount of municipal infrastructure in bad or very bad shape, Morissette said. For example, the “deficit” has dropped from 540 kilometres of water mains that were in bad or very bad shape in 2016 to 340 kilometres today, she said. However, at the current rhythm of annual investment, the system will degrade faster than it can be repaired, she said. In a decade, more than 1,000 kilometres of water mains — nearly a quarter of the network — are expected to be in bad or very bad shape, she said.

Public transit is also in need of massive investment. Nearly $18 billion is required in the next 10 years to maintain assets, electrify the network and to continue rendering métro stations accessible, the city says. Montreal also expects to incur new costs with the commissioning of new projects, including the REM, the métro Blue line extension and the new SRB Pie-IX rapid transit bus corridor.

lgyulai@postmedia.com

Related

Allison Hanes: A sit-down with Mayor Plante on Season 2, Year 1
Montreal's 2022 budget: Plante keeps residential tax increase to 2%
Jump in Montreal property valuations won't mean same jump in taxes, city assures

 

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreals-cash-conundrum-dreaming-up-new-fees-but-who-pays

[mcgill101]

A crew was removing graffiti this morning in the tunnel that runs beneath the Ville-Marie, along Fort Street. Hopefully we start to see these teams around the city, but I won't hold my breath!